Shunt strip

ABSTRACT

A shunt strip that includes a plurality of shunts arranged in a grid with each of the shunts spaced from an adjacent shunt by a shunt-gap. A plurality of tabs connect the plurality of shunts and at least one tab is positioned within each shunt-gap. Also, a shunt with a generally parallelepiped shaped body has severed tab portions extending outwardly and downwardly from the body.

BACKGROUND

Shunt resistors (referred to herein simply as “shunts”) are used todetermine the current flow through electrical components or circuits. Atypical shunt of the type used in an integrated circuit (“IC”) packageusually comprises a metal plate that is electrically connected, forexample by wire bonding, to the component or circuit. The voltage dropacross the shunt is measured. This measured voltage drop is then used tocalculate the current through the component or circuit.

SUMMARY

A shunt strip including a plurality of shunts arranged in a grid, eachof the shunts is spaced from an adjacent shunt in the grid by ashunt-gap. A plurality of tabs connect the plurality of shunts. At leastone tab is positioned within each shunt-gap.

A method of producing shunts for IC packages includes etching a strip ofmaterial to provide a shunt strip with a plurality of shunts arranged inlinear rows and columns and with adjacent shunts connected by shunttabs.

A method of making IC packages includes etching a strip of material toprovide a shunt strip with a plurality of shunts arranged in linear rowsand columns with adjacent shunts connected by shunt tabs. The methodincludes singulating the shunt strip by cutting through the shunt tabs.The method further includes attaching a shunt singulated from the shuntstrip to a leadframe with a layer of bonding material having a bond linethickness of about the same height as the height of a shunt down-setproduced by tab cutting.

A shunt includes a metal plate body with severed tab portions extendingoutwardly from the body portion.

A method of singulating a shunt strip having a plurality of shunt bodiesattached by shunt tabs includes cutting through the shunt tabs with apunch assembly.

An integrated circuit package includes a leadframe having a die attachpad and a plurality of leads. A die is operably mounted on the dieattach pad. A shunt includes a metal plate body portion with down-setsextending outwardly and downwardly from the body portion with the shuntconnected to at least one of the plurality of leads by a layer ofbonding material with a bond line thickness. The down-sets penetrate thelayer of bonding material and electrically engage at least one of theplurality of leads and support the shunt above the leads at about thebond-line thickness of the bonding material. A layer of mold compoundencapsulates at least portions of the leadframe, the die and the shunt.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a shunt strip.

FIG. 2 is a detail top plan view of a portion of the shunt strip of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a shunt singulated from the shunt strip ofFIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 is a magnified cross-sectional elevation view of a shunt shown inFIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a top, partially cutaway view of an integrated circuit packagewith a shunt mounted on a leadframe.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional elevation view of the IC package of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a magnified elevation view of a shunt attached to a lead frameby a layer of bonding material.

FIG. 8 is a schematic elevation view showing cutting of a shunt tab witha composite blade.

FIG. 9 is a schematic elevation view showing a cut shunt tab.

FIG. 10 is a schematic elevation view showing partial cutting of a shunttab with a composite blade.

FIG. 11 is a schematic elevation view showing the partially cut shunttab.

FIG. 12 is a schematic elevation view showing severing of the partiallycut shunt tab of FIG. 11 with a toothed saw blade.

FIG. 13 is a schematic elevation view showing the severed shunt tab.

FIG. 14A is a schematic elevation view illustrating a first operatingstate of a punch assembly performing shunt singulation and leadframemounting.

FIG. 14B is a schematic elevation view illustrating a second operatingstate of a punch assembly performing shunt singulation and leadframemounting.

FIG. 14C is a schematic elevation view illustrating a third operatingstate of a punch assembly performing shunt singulation and leadframemounting.

FIG. 14D A is a schematic elevation view illustrating a fourth operatingstate of a punch assembly performing shunt singulation and leadframemounting.

FIG. 14E is a schematic elevation view illustrating a fifth operatingstate of a punch assembly performing shunt singulation and leadframemounting.

FIG. 14F is a schematic elevation view illustrating a sixth operatingstate of a punch assembly performing shunt singulation and leadframemounting.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating a method of producing shunts for ICpackages.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a method of making IC packages.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a method of singulating a shuntstrip.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a shunt strip 10, and FIG. 2 is a detailtop plan view of a portion of the shunt strip 10 of FIG. 1. The shuntstrip 10 comprises outer rail portions 12, 14, 16 and 18 positionedaround a rectangular grid of shunts 20. The array of shunts 20 includeindividual shunts 22, 24, 26 and 28 that are positioned in the lowerleft-hand corner of the shunt strip 10. Each of the shunts 20, e.g.,shunts 22, 24, 26 and 28, may comprise a generally rectangular plateshaped body portion 30. The body portion 30 includes a top face 32, abottom face 34 (FIG. 4), and four lateral side faces 36, 38, 40, 42. Atypical thickness of a shunt body portion 30 is 0.203 mm. The exampleshunt strip 10 of FIG. 1 is a 40×34 shunt array in a shunt strip thatmeasures 144.86 mm×57.00 mm. Other shunt arrays configurations, shuntshapes, shunt thicknesses and shunt strip sizes may be used.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of shunt 22 after it has been singulated fromthe shunt strip 10. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional detail view of shunt 22shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

As best shown by FIG. 2, each of the shunt body portions 30 is separatedfrom adjacent body portions 30 or adjacent rails 12, 14, 16 or 18 by ashunt-gap 48. Each shunt is connected to adjacent shunts or rails by aplurality of tabs 50 positioned in the shunt-gaps 48. For example, inthe illustrated embodiment each lateral side of shunt 22 is connected torail 18 and adjacent shunts by two tabs 50. Thus, shunt 22 is supportedwithin the shunt strip 10 by a total of eight tabs 50, specifically tabs52, 54, 56, 58, 62, 64, 66, and 68. In the illustrated embodiment, eachof these tabs 50 has been formed by half etching the upper portion ofthe shunt strip 10. Thus, as best shown by FIG. 4, the bottom surface 34of each shunt body portion 30 is coplanar with the bottom surface 35 ofeach tab 50, e.g., tab 62, that extends outwardly therefrom. Eachshunt-gap 48 comprises a volume of empty space and a volume of tabmaterial. In the illustrated embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the volume ofempty space is significantly greater than the volume of tab material,e.g., about 10 times greater in one embodiment. In slightly differentwords, each shunt-gap 48 has a total gap volume that includes a tabvolume and an open space volume and the open space volume exceeds thetab volume.

The thickness of each of the tabs 50 in the illustrated embodiment ofFIGS. 1-4 is about half the thickness of the shunt body portion 30, butother embodiments may have different tab thicknesses. One advantage offorming a shunt strip with etched shunt-gaps 48 between shunts with theshunts connected by tabs 50 is that this forming technique reduces theamount of metal that must be cut during subsequent shunt singulation, asdescribed in detail below. Half etching the tabs 50 further reduces theamount of metal that must be cut during shunt singulation. In oneembodiment, the plurality of shunts in a shunt strip has an averagethickness value; and the plurality of tabs in the strip has an averagethickness value less than the average thickness value of the shunts.

In some embodiments (not shown) no half etching is performed and eachtab has the same thickness as the associated shunt body portion 30. Evenin such embodiments in which the tabs 50 are not half etched, the amountof metal cut during shunt singulation is significantly less than theamount of metal that must be cut to singulate a shunt strip that isformed without shunt-gaps 40 and connecting tabs 50.

Another advantage of a process that combines shunt etching with tabsawing is that it precisely controls the size of the singulated shunts.In an un-etched shunt strip, shunts are singulated from the stripexclusively by sawing. The size of shunts produced by sawing alone ismore variable than that of shunts produced by the combined etching andsawing process described herein.

FIG. 5 is a top, partially cutaway view of an integrated circuit (IC)package 70. The IC package 70 includes a lead frame 80 having leads 82and a die attach pad 84. The leadframe 80 has an upper surface 86. Ashunt 22, is mounted on leads 82 of the leadframe 80. (The shunt 22 inFIG. 5 is shown as transparent for illustrative purposes.) A die 100 ismounted on the die pad 84. The shunt 22 may be electrically connected tothe die 100 and to other electrical components or circuits as by wirebonding or other electrical connection (not shown).

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional elevation view of FIG. 5 showing shunt 22attached to a lead 82 of leadframe 80 by a layer of bond material 90.FIG. 7 is a magnified elevation view of a portion of FIG. 6 showing theshunt 22 attached to leads 82 of a leadframe 80 by a layer of bondingmaterial 90. As may be seen from FIG. 7, during singulation of shunt 22,a downwardly extending “tail” remnant 94 of the associated tab, e.g.,68, FIG. 3, is produced. This tail remnant 94 is also referred to hereinas “shunt down-set 94” because it extends downwardly from the horizontalbottom surface of the shunt 22. It engages the top surface of the lead82 supporting the shunt 22 at a spaced distance above the lead 82. Thelayer of bond material 90 has a thickness (“bond line thickness” 92)equal to a down-set height 91 of the shunt down-set 94. The shuntdown-set 94 increases the structural integrity of the IC package becauseit allows a relatively thick layer of bonding material 90 to be appliedbetween the lead 82 and shunt 22. Although the bonding material 90 is aconductive material, such as conductive epoxy, solder, etc., the directengagement of the shunt down-set 94 with the lead 82 helps to improveelectrical contact between the shunt 22 and the lead 82. A typical bondline thickness 92 may be about 0.013 mm.

Referring again to FIG. 5, a die 100 is conventionally mounted on thedie attach pad 84. The shunt 22, die 100 and lead frame 80 are encasedin a layer of mold compound 102, a small portion of which is shown inFIG. 5. Leads 82 are exposed at the side faces of the mold compoundlayer 102.

Singulation of shunts 20 from the shunt strip 10 will now be describedwith reference to FIGS. 8 through 13. As shown in FIGS. 8-13, prior tosingulation, the shunt strip 10 has dicing tape 110 applied to thebottom surface thereof. FIG. 8 is a schematic elevation view showingcutting of the shunt tab 58 extending between shunts 22 and 24. The cutis made with an abrasive composite blade 112. FIG. 9 is a schematicelevation view showing that, as a result of the cutting by compositeblade 112, the shunt tab 58 has been urged downwardly and cut into twodownwardly and outwardly extending portions 94, 96. One of thesedownwardly extending portions 94 is the shunt down-set 94 shown in FIG.7. The cutting by composite blade 112 also forms a slot 113 in thedicing tape 110. The distance below the horizontal bottom surface of theshunt 28 that the shunt down-set 94 extends defines the shunt down-setheight 91.

Another method of singulation is illustrated in FIGS. 10 through 13.FIG. 10 is a schematic elevation view showing partial cutting of a shunttab with a composite blade 112. In FIG. 10, unlike FIG. 9, the compositeblade 112 does not cut entirely through the tab 58. However, it doesurge the tab 58 downwardly a distance that is a relatively constantdistance from tab to tab. FIG. 11 is a schematic elevation view showingthe partially cut shunt tab 58 produced by the operation of FIG. 10.FIG. 12 is a schematic elevation view showing severing of the deformedand partially cut shunt tab 58 of FIG. 11 with a toothed saw blade 120.

FIG. 13 is a schematic elevation view showing two tails or shuntdown-sets 122, 124 resulting from severing shunt tab 58 with the toothedsaw blade 120 in FIG. 12. The down-set height 126 of the two shuntdown-sets 122, 124 is a distance that is less variable from tab to tabthan that produced by the operation shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. This issignificant in that the down-set height 126 of the shunt down-sets iswhat defines the ideal bond line thickness 92, FIG. 7, for anyparticular tab. By maintaining this bond line thickness 92 constant fromtab to tab, the quality of the tab to leadframe connections areimproved.

It will be appreciated from FIGS. 10-13 and the associated descriptionthereof that an upper surface portion 132 of each shunt down-set 122,124, FIG. 13, will be an abrasive blade cut surface portion and a lowersurface portion 134 thereof will be a toothed blade cut surface portion.

Variations in the height of shunt down-sets produced in the singulationprocess, as well as decreasing the electrical and adhesive effectivenessof bonding material also contributes to shunt tilting within an ICpackage 70, in the same way a 4 legged table tilts when one or more ofthe legs are of different lengths.

FIGS. 14A-14F schematically illustrate a process of shunt singulationand mounting of the singulated shunt on a leadframe. The elevation viewsshown in FIGS. 14A-14D depict singulation operations being performed onone side of a shunt 144 by a punch assembly 160. However, the punchassembly 160 actually has a total of eight opposed prong sets, i.e., twodouble prong sets on each side of the four sided punch assembly 160.Thus, essentially identical operations to those shown in FIGS. 14A to14D are performed by the punch assembly 160 all four sides of the shunt144 simultaneously.

As shown by FIG. 14A, the punch assembly 160 is used to singulate ashunt strip 140 comprising a plurality of shunts 142, 144, 146, etc.,that are connected by a plurality of half etched shunt tabs 152, 154.The shunt strip 140 has a continuous flat bottom surface 161 and mayhave the same structure as the shunt strip 10 described with referenceto FIGS. 1-4.

The punch assembly 160 includes a lower punch member 162 and an upperpunch member 172 that are disposed on opposite sides of the shunt strip140. Lower punch member 162 includes a central body portion 163 havingsharp ended prong members 164, 166 extending upwardly from opposite endsof the side of the punch member 162 that is shown. A pedestal portion168 having a flat top surface 169 extends upwardly from a centralportion of the central body portion 163 to a height slightly above thatof the prong members 164, 166.

Upper punch member 172 includes a central body portion 173. Blunt endedprong portions 174, 176 extend downwardly from opposite ends of the sideof the central body portion 173 that is shown. At least one vacuumconduit member, vacuum conduit members 178, 180 in this embodiment,extend downwardly from the central body portion 173 a distance less thanthat of the prong portions 174, 176.

In FIG. 14B lower punch member 162 has been moved upwardly, as indicatedby arrow 182, to a position where the flat top surface 169 of pedestalportion 168 engages the flat bottom surface 161 of the shunt strip inalignment with shunt 144. At this position the sharp ended prong members164, 166 are spaced a short distance below the flat bottom surface 161of the strip 140 and in alignment with the tabs 152, 154.

Next, as illustrated by FIG. 14C, the upper punch member 172 is moveddownwardly, as indicated by arrow 184. As punch member 172 is moveddownwardly the blunt ended of prong members 174, 176 engage the tabs152, 154 and deforms each tabs into a downwardly extending U-shape untilthe tab engages the opposed sharp ended prong members 164 or 166.Engagement with sharp ended prong members 164 or 166 causes theassociated deformed tab 152 or 154 to be cut in half formingtails/pillars/down-sets (“shunt down-sets”) 152A and 152B. Similarlycutting tab 154 forms shunt down-sets 154A and 154B. Also, vacuumconduit members 178, 180, which are in fluid communication with a vacuumsource, engage the top surface of shunt 144 and are held to it byvacuum/suction force.

As illustrated by FIG. 14E, after the shunt down-sets 152, 154 aresevered, the lower punch member 162 is moved downwardly 184 and theupper punch member is moved upwardly 182. The shunt 144 remains engagedwith the vacuum conduit members 178, 180 and move upwardly with itseparating shunt 144 from shunts 142 and 146.

Next, as illustrated by FIG. 14E, the upper punch member 172 ispositioned above a leadframe 186 with a patch of conductive material 188applied to a predetermined portion of it. The conductive material 188may be, for example, uncured conductive epoxy or liquid solder paste.Once the top punch member 172 is positioned above the leadframe, it ismoved downwardly 184 to a predetermined elevation. At that elevation,the vacuum conduit member 178, 180 are displaced downwardly 185 from theupper punch member until the shunt down-sets 152A, 154A penetrate theconductive material 188 and engage the top surface of the leadframe 186.

As shown by FIG. 14F, the application of vacuum holding force to theshunt 144 is then terminated; the vacuum conduit member 178, 180 aredisplaced upwardly 182 into the upper punch member 172 and the upperpunch member is itself moved (by a conventional displacement assembly,not shown) upwardly 182 and away from the leadframe 186. Thus the upperpunch member 172 acts as a pick-and-place machine to place thesingulated shunt 144 on the leadframe 186 after the punch assembly 160has singulated shunt 144 from the etched shunt sheet 140. Including ashunt holding mechanism for shunt pick up and attachment to a leadframeprovides several advantages because it combines two separate processesand thereby significantly improves assembly throughput, cycle time, andefficiency. It reduces cost by allowing a single operator and singlemachine to perform processes that would ordinarily require two operatorsand two separate machines.

After the operation shown in FIG. 14F, the leadframe 186 with the shunt144 and conductive material 188 is moved to a curing oven/furnace wherethe conductive material 188 is cured or reflowed to permanently attachthe shunt 144 to the leadframe 186. Other operations are also performedto electrically connect the shunt 144 to an associated die (not shown)mounted on the leadframe. After these operations, the entire assemblymay be molded, etc., in a conventional manner to complete the formationof an integrated circuit package with an internal shunt.

As illustrated by FIG. 15, a method of producing shunts for IC packagesincludes, as shown at block 211, etching a strip of material to providea shunt strip with a plurality of shunts arranged in linear rows andcolumns and with adjacent ones of the plurality of shunts connected byshunt tabs.

As illustrated by FIG. 16, a method of making IC packages includes, asshown at block 221, etching a strip of material to provide a shunt stripwith a plurality of shunts arranged in linear rows and columns withadjacent ones of the plurality of shunts connected by shunt tabs. Themethod also includes, as shown at block 222, singulating the shunt stripby cutting through the shunt tabs. The method further includes, as shownat block 223, attaching a shunt singulated from the shunt strip to aleadframe with a layer of bonding material having a bond line thicknessabout the same as the height of a shunt shunt down-set produced by tabcutting.

As illustrated by FIG. 17, a method of singulating a shunt strip havinga plurality of shunt bodies attached by shunt tabs includes, as shown atblock 231, cutting through the shunt tabs with a punch assembly.

Although various embodiments of shunt strips and methods of singulatingthe shunt strips and integrated circuit packages incorporating suchshunt strips have been expressly described in detail herein, variousalternative embodiments of such shunt strips and associated singulationmethods and integrated circuit packages will become obvious to thoseskilled in the art after reading this disclosure. It is intended thatthe language of the appended claims be construed broadly so as to coverall such alternative embodiments, except to the extent limited by theprior art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A shunt strip comprising: a plurality of shunts arranged in a grid, each of the shunts being spaced from an adjacent shunt in the grid by a shunt-gap; and a plurality of tabs connecting the plurality of shunts, at least one tab being positioned within each shunt-gap.
 2. The shunt strip of claim 1, each shunt-gap having a total gap volume that includes a tab volume and an open space volume and wherein the open space volume exceeds the tab volume.
 3. The shunt strip of claim 1, the plurality of shunts comprising an average thickness value; and the plurality of tabs comprising an average thickness value less than the average thickness value of the plurality of shunts.
 4. The shunt strip of claim 1 wherein the plurality of shunts and the plurality of tabs are composed of the same material.
 5. The shunt strip of claim 1 wherein each pair of adjacent shunts are connected by at least two spaced apart tabs.
 6. The shunt strip of claim 1 wherein the plurality of tabs are half etched tabs.
 7. A method of producing shunts for IC packages comprising: etching a strip of material to provide a shunt strip with a plurality of shunts arranged in linear rows and columns and with adjacent ones of the plurality of shunts connected by shunt tabs.
 8. The method of claim 7 further comprising singulating the shunt strip by cutting through the shunt tabs.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the cutting the shunt tabs comprises cutting the shunt tabs with an abrasive type blade.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the cutting the shunt tabs comprises partially cutting the shunt tabs with an abrasive type blade in a first cutting pass and then completely severing the shunt tabs with a toothed saw blade in a second cutting pass.
 11. A method of making IC packages comprising: etching a strip of material to provide a shunt strip with a plurality of shunts arranged in linear rows and columns with adjacent ones of the plurality of shunts connected by shunt tabs; singulating a shunt from the shunt strip by cutting through associated shunt tabs to create shunt down-sets; attaching the shunt singulated from the shunt strip to a leadframe with a layer of bonding material having a bond line thickness of about the same height as that of the shunt down-set.
 12. The method of claim 11 further comprising controlling the down-set height of the shunt by using a two pass tab cutting process.
 13. A shunt comprising a generally metal plate body portion with severed tab portions extending outwardly and downwardly from the body portion.
 14. The shunt of claim 13 wherein the shunt is attached to a leadframe.
 15. The shunt of claim 14 wherein the severed tab portions of the shunt are encased in bonding compound that attaches the shunt to the leadframe.
 16. The shunt of claim 15 wherein the severed tab portions of the shunt engage the leadframe.
 17. The shunt of claim 16 wherein the severed tab portions of the shunt all have about the same down-set height.
 18. The shunt of claim 17, the severed tab portions all having an abrasive blade cut surface and a toothed blade cut surface.
 19. A method of singulating a shunt strip having a plurality of shunts attached by shunt tabs comprising cutting through the shunt tabs with a punch assembly.
 20. The method of claim 19 further comprising vacuum engaging a singulated shunt with a portion of the punch assembly.
 21. The method of claim 20 further comprising placing the vacuum engaged singulated shunt on a portion of a leadframe covered with conductive material and terminating the vacuum engagement.
 22. The method of claim 19 wherein said cutting through the shunt tabs with a punch assembly comprises forming two shunt down-sets from each cut shunt tab having a predetermined down-set height.
 23. The method of claim 22 comprising applying to a leadframe a patch of conductive shunt attachment material having a thickness approximately equal to the the predetermined down-set height.
 24. The method of claim 23 comprising vacuum picking and placing a singulated shunt on the patch of conductive material with a portion of the punch assembly.
 25. An integrated circuit package comprising: a leadframe having a die attach pad and a plurality of leads; a die mounted on the die attach pad; a shunt comprising a metal plate body portion with shunt down-sets extending outwardly and downwardly from the body portion; said shunt being connected to at least one of said plurality of leads by a layer of bonding material with a bond line thickness, wherein said shunt down-sets penetrate said layer of bonding material and electrically engage at least one of said plurality of leads and support said shunt above said leads at about the bond-line thickness of the bonding material; and a layer of mold compound encapsulating at least portions of the leadframe, the die and the shunt.
 26. A punch assembly for singulating a plurality of shunts connected by tabs comprising a punch member having: tab engaging portions operable in severing the tabs; and a shunt engaging portion operable to engage and hold a shunt singulated from the plurality of shunts and to place and release the shunt on a leadframe. 